Friday, August 08, 2008

Olympian Kufiyas

(Reuters)

4 Palestinians are competing in the Beijing Olympics. They wore kufiya shirts in today's opening ceremony parade. The flag carrier is 5000 meter runner Nader Al-Masri, who hails from Beit Hanoun refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, and who needed the help of human rights organizations in order to secure an exit visa, so he could train in...Jericho. (Thanks, Joel.)

6 comments:

haha i was wondering when youd post on this! i was thinking ... b/c its no longer such a statement around the neck, did they have to make it that much louder and make a full shirt of it? can i hope to see kufiya jumpsuits in the future?

This is a video from an Jewish-Israeli "hina (henna) party) party. The happy couple are 100% Jewish by faith, but as you see they are sporting Kufiyias and dancing to Arabic music ("Bouki dalale"), a most popular song among Mizrachi Jews.

About Me

Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936-39 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. Co-editor of Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture and of Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity.